a blog about life on Skopelos

The gloves are, er, off

The mayor’s office apologizes but after a rummage through the mayoral escritoire – sporting a fresh coat of shocking pink paint, if only to cover up the My Little Pony decals favoured by the previous incumbent – the office has discovered that it is unable to provide gloves for Sunday’s volunteer clear-up of the imaginatively titled town beach, Ammos (‘sand’). It will, however, be providing sturdy plastic garbage bags, and will arrange to remove the detritus afterwards.

Volunteers are asked to meet at the taxi shelter by the port at 11am, ideally with some sturdy γάντια, gloves. Those prepared to work in the wetter areas of the beach are advised to wear wellingtons or other waterproof footwear, and if this weather continues a hat is also advisable. Bring water, Wet Wipes or disinfectant hand gel for a post-collection clean up.

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Rigas Patsis’s hardware store on the periferiko has a wide range of garden and work gloves, starting at €1.50 for some very butch black and grey rubber gloves, and including a variety of similarly-priced waterproof work gloves in radioactive oranges and yellows so bright they look as though they are trying to communicate with other galaxies…

What, exactly, might be up in the mountains that could ‘fester’ on the beach to the extent that it would require a HazMat suit? There was an odour from standing water on the beach road last week, but plenty of people have been walking on or near the beach in recent weeks. I’ve walked past it numerous times, and haven’t noticed anything untoward.

OK perhaps suggesting HazMat suits is going a bit to far but caution in dealing with whatever is on or under the beach is well advised. Catastrophic system failures might suggest being careful before plunging in for a clean-up.

We, or at least I, have no idea about what’s going on upstream and whether or not the beach itself is actually not a health risk. There is a reason that flood cleanup experts recommend cleaning with chlorine (http://floodsafety.com/national/property/cleanup/) and one of the reasons is that you really don’t know what you are dealing with. Better safe than sorry.

Why not wait a few months to clean up? The stink on the waterfront is not from unsightly plastic refuse.

Funnily enough, I haven’t read anything about the exciting-sounding (or, at least, to type) ‘catastrophic system failures’ on any of the island websites.

If anything nasty has come down from the mountains, anyone who has passed through town in the past seven weeks will have been breathing it in powdered particulate form in the dust blowing around anyway. I haven’t seen any disaster-movie scenarios unfolding so far.

A bunch of folks organized the beach clean-up because the sight of the beach is so depressing.

And I would trust most sensible adults to walk away from anything that smelled dodgy. Read Donovan Hohn’s book Moby-Duck to see how often these clean-ups occur on beaches around the world.

Driving on Skopelos is a health risk, but compared to what I’ve experienced in life I think a walk on the wild side of Ammos is not really a big deal. I suggest those that cannot handle it stay indoors and keep the doors and windows tightly closed. The rest of us will Keep Calm and Carry On.